Flymo

Guys (and lots of girls, too) enjoy going to Bunnings. It is a hardware mega-store. On Saturday, I picked up some new toys. Shown here is my Flymo push lawnmower. We have a petrol mower, but this one is fun and very efficient. I don't have much lawn so, if perhaps my grass doesn't grow sufficiently, I will take it out on the oval this weekend.

Some other items I picked up were hedge trimming shears ($5, already bent) and pruning secateurs. One of my favourite items is the mushroom farm. I will get some photos when I set it up and perhaps we can follow it through to harvest time?

Brewing kits aren't sold at Bunnings (yet), but I picked a couple up on the way home and now brew thirty-four is bubbling away happily. (It is a wheat beer).

Under the Sea

It is often hard to describe what a strange place it is under the waves, so I will let the pictures do the talking for me. All of these photos were taken on the Great Barrier Reef last week while under the sea with my dive-buddy, Jenny.


Jenny and I crammed eleven dives in to three days while we were "living aboard" on the Great Barrier Reef. Jen is shown hovering above some interesting varieties of coral.


We almost bumped in to two enormous cuttlefish last Thursday. These molluscs were bigger than footballs and hovered and rotated like aliens in another world. Colours ripple and change over their body depending on how they feel and you can easily see if you are getting too close. I didn't try to pat these guys in case they decided to "ink" me.


Ange, I wonder if you will be able to keep up with the food bill when your turtles are as big as this guy!? This turtle was just munching on some coral and cruising along at about ten metres. Jenny and I were lucky to spot him because we were just about out of air and heading back to the dive boat.


White-tip reef sharks were pretty common on the reef. They are not lethal to humans and are actually fairly timid. I certainly couldn't get much closer than this photo indicates before the sharks get spooked and sidle off some distance.


It really is a three-dimensional world on the reef. The coral grows and forms interesting structures. This little gap is is a great spot for fish to take a break from any surge near the surface. We also found a little cave to swim through a little further on.


I took a shine to these strange fish with the pointy noses. It is really difficult (impossible?) to talk under water, so there are some standard hand signals that divers use to communicate to each other. Jenny and I have been diving together for a while now so we have started to incorporate novel gestures. I doubt, though, that our signal for "pointy-nose fish" would be novel!


Giant clams are real! They do not just live in the realm of computer games. Apparently, just like in the computer games, their grip is phenomenal and I was very careful not to stick my hand in! If you do, you're not getting it back... ever. Watch your pressure gauges, Jenny!


Thousands and thousands of fish! A tough life, by my standards, but these guys flourish amongst the coral. Diving or snorkelling on the reef is amazing stuff! Cheers everyone.

Tropical North Queensland

Jenny and I have just returned from a trip to "Tropical North Queensland". We spent a few days diving on the Great Barrier Reef near Cairns. I used a couple of rolls of film underwater and will post some of the better photographs up in a few days.


After a little difficulty regaining our land-legs, we hiked through to Daintree rainforest. Frequent swims in the cool streams were vital!


Palm trees, cane toads and crocodiles are abundant in the far north. I will spare you a shot of the cane toads for now...


We spotted a wild croc - just a little fella' - on a boat cruise on the Daintree River.


Of course, at the crocodile farm, we saw hundreds of them. There was plenty of death-rolling and snapping at scraps. After watching the "croc-show", it is difficult not to have some affection for the crocs.

To Be Fair...

Guys, I have narrowed it down to just one type of bike to purchase: The GS500 by Suzuki. With this in mind, Roberts, Jen and Mel came with me after lunch on Monday to check out the range of bikes on Wentworth Avenue in Sydney City. We certainly made the sales staff a little nervous by jumping on the bikes - though we did restrain ourselves from making motorbike noises and beeping the horns... anyhow...


Which one should I get? (The mechanicals are identical). The faired version looks a bit sexier and will perhaps be (possibly) "nicer" to ride at speed, though the unfaired bike is cheaper by about a grand and, of course, doesn't have sensitive fairings to be damaged... I don't really think that I would be going far wrong either way though... comments?

Elouise O'Toole Fare Ye Well

Phil and Jenny and I socialised with our fellow chemists at our end-of-week drinks at Bramley's. We will be returning from Cairns (via Sydney) in a bit over a week - so hang in there for some new photos!

Sunrise over Lake Burley G

Puss has trained me to wake up at 4am now to let him in (through the window). Though I try to sleep, I still wake early. Without daylight saving time, and with the days getting longer and longer, it is bright ridiculously early in the morning now. Not one to waste an oppurtunity, I rushed in on my (push)bike on Sunday morning to take in the sunrise over The Lake.

The last time I took in this sight, I was one of the many clubbers and pubbers that I again saw pouring out on to the street at a little after five on my way through Civic. This time I felt as fresh as a daisy and was grateful for it. Nice view - I feel though, that my photo doesn't do it justice..

Farewell Jon Foot

At his farewell dinner in Dickson, Jon is shown sporting his farewell gift from us that sports a likeness of our illustrious professorial research supervisor.

Cackle Around the Barbie

This is a superb method for cooking a chicken. A half-empty (or half-full?) beer can is lodged in the cavity of a chook. Said chook is then "perched" on the barbie and the lid closed. At full power, the chook was cooked superbly in 50 minutes. The purpose of the beer can is to steam the chicken from the inside. This procedure, uncovered by Chris, looks to be a winner and will be repeated again soon. Of course, for full appreciation, the chicken lunch should be accompanied by a generous number of long-necks of homebrew while playing some darts in the yard. The weather now is perfect for chilling out in the backyard cooking chooks with cans of beer in them.

Happy 25th Birthday, Roberts!

The Todman Avenue lads - Roberts, JB and Scotty - hosted an awesome long weekend of partying to celebrate the big guy's 25th, take in the footy grandfinals and revel in the long weekend and top Sydney weather. After Sydney went down in the hard-fought AFL grandfinal, party-goers quickly swung in to Singstar mode.

Jilly and Bog cheer on JB as he wows the crowd!

The birthday boy was accompanied by Ange for a duet. Somehow Roberts, I don't know quite why, all good parties involve you getting absolutely drenched in beers!

The Idiot Patrol was in fine form. Whip-cracking took place at about this time out on the street. (As opposed to earlier in-door exhibitions - sorry about the light fitting, Roberts!). Mel was the whip-cracker to show the most improvement in the evening though Robbo was the deadset whipping cracking champion.

The Rege of course featured in the Sydney trip (like always!) as well as a couple of snorkelling expeditions to Gordon's Bay and Clovelly. They are absolute top spots for a dip - especially when the weather is as great as it has been over the last couple of days. Cheers again to the whole Sydney crew - as well to some new friends like Jill and Ed that I have finally been able to have a few beers with. Great stuff and see you guys again soon. (Good luck with the house inspection, btw!)

Emily Miller Beach

Here's a tip: Emily Miller beach in the Murramarang National Park. Jenny and I visited the beach to do some snorkelling and spearfishing. (Thankfully we have wetsuits!). I speared a red morwong that was THIS big, but after a brief struggle, it escaped. 'Til next time, fish!

Motorcycle Learner

Thanks Mal for the loaner of the "Fat Hog". The beauty about riding a postie is that even 50 km/h feels like a blistering pace.

I did get my learner's permit back in 1999, but it has expired in the meantime. I had a few stacks back then - always yanking on the front brack at the slightest sign of danger. Oh, but it will be all different this time around... I will be so careful.

Floriade in Canberra

Mount Dromedary

Next to the quaint village of Tilba lies mount Dromedary. Les, Jenny and I ascended the 900 metre mountain on Monday morning.


The mountain is clothed mainly in cool rainforest. Bright spring days are marvellous for bush-walking. Am I right, Kevo?


We paused at the top for a light lunch before trekking back down to Tilba Tilba. Tuesday was gorgeous as well, but then it was time to return to Canberra. The days are wonderful - so bright and so warm at this time of year it is hard to stay inside at all!

Down at the Coast

With snorkelling out of the question, I tried my hand at fishing. Like I said, I think that the weather had driven the fish in to seclusion so we didn't catch anything more than some seaweed.


The weather did start to fine up after a while and the Narooma Golf Course is famous, so Les and I played half a dozen holes and this shot was taken from the deck of the clubhouse on Monday afternoon.

Aqua-Man

The weather was very wet for most of the week at Narooma. The gale force winds whipped the sea into a frenzy. The fish must have had more sense than me and had taken to shelter. Despite being tossed around a few times in the waves, my fishing expeditions were unfortunately fruitless.


Out of the weather, I engaged in one of my favourite board games: Scrabble. You really do love it or hate, right? This is a shot from the end of a game against Jen, in which I was victorious.

Bramley's Bar

Chemist like doing reactions and playing soccer, but we also like having a few drinks. Jen volunteered recently to be our bar-tender at Bramley's at the RSC.

Purple Shin Soccer Grand Final 2006

Our RSC soccer team made it through to the grand final and the week before last we had our last game against Facilities and Services. It was a really hard fought game and we went down 2-1.

Rugby 2006 Concludes

This season I played with the third and fourth grady Uni Owls rugby team. Our third grade and fourth grades made it in to the semi-finals and we were knocked out. Thirds went down to Gunghalin and fourths to Wests. Our second grade team did better and made it in to the grand final. The season was great fun despite the freezing training sessions and I will endevour to play again in 2007.

Shootin' up the Joint

Click on the picture to view the full video (1.8 MB).

Courtesy of Scotty, a collection of recently recording shooting videos arrived in the mail. I have done a little editing and blogged them up. Scotty, I hope that you like the results!

Kremlin's Benevolent Dictator Turns Twenty-four

Powerful party members convened at the Kremlin headquarters in Canberra to plan for aggressive strikes against the capitalist oppressors, though mainly they were celebrating Paula's twenty-fourth birthday.


Brisk Canberra weather made the head-wear selection simple.


A cup-cake tower! Bree' is the architect and engineer of this tasty feat.


As a spy, I was required to adopt the outward appearance of a party-faithful comrade.


No, this isn't Julia Volkova and Lena Katina - Russian lesbian duo of the famed band t.a.T.u., but Mel and Jen enjoying themselves in the plush interior of the Kremlin in Canberra.


On his soap-box, Andrew Roberts rallied troops together to attempt an uprising against the oppressors and was set-back in a minor way by a random hat-stealing gesture from a member of the public... 'Til next time all!